Standard Member

I see them mentioned in magazines and on websites. Even in these forums they are often quoted but do they mean anything? Panasonic claim to have contrast ratio of 4000:1 while in HCC I see that most ratio are stated below 400:1 (most much lower) So is panasonic being economic with the truth? what about those others with claims of 3000:1 or 1000:1 are these just exaggerations? why isn't there a standered that us regular Joes can understand.

Distinguished MemberAVForums Sponsor

I thnk you can forget most stated contrast ratio's from manufacturers. They are virtually always completely non-realworld. They measure ON/OFF contrast which is NOT what you see.

ON would be with contrast at FULL fed as HOT a white signal as possible to try and get maximum light output. If you watched a movie like that you'd see little or no bright detail as it'd likely be crushed out of image and the chances are if it's a CRT or Plasma you'll damage it.

Off would be VERY dark room, brightness on 0 no signal to display.

The magazines probably measure on/off as well except they are likely to measure it with the display calibrated so you can actually see the correct detail and the gamm is correct. This is significantly different from first reading and is MUCH more realistic.

The ndustry standard is ANSI contrast measurement though where you measure a checkerboard white black box image and average out the levels of the whte and black. This is possibly closer to a realworld assesment of what's possible but it's never mentioned in any specs I think. In the end I'd just avoid specs for choosing devices and just go view them.

Active Member

I agree totally with Gordon. Unless you know exactly how the test was performed the contrast ratio is useless. They may tell you somthing about the models within one manufacturer's products but that's about it. Typically the numbers quoted are far higher than you will achieve in actually use.

I measured contrast ratios on various displays as part of my masters degree, the results were an eye-opener.